


archery lessons

by gsales



Series: tumblr prompts - percabeth [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-The Battle of the Labyrinth, Pre-The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson), Tumblr Prompt, mentioned Charles Beckendorf/Silena Beauregard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:53:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28920129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gsales/pseuds/gsales
Summary: “I'm sorry, okay?” He finally looks at her face, and his voice weakens when he sees it so… hurt. “I didn’t mean to ignore you, I just… Zoned out for a bit. I know this is important and I appreciate you taking your time to help me, as well as everyone else. But I’m tired, and there’s too much going on and- And you’re distracting.”He blushes furiously at the end of his sentence, but her cheeks also turn red as her expression softens slightly. At last, she nods. “Well, you can have archery lessons with someone else, then. Let’s find Beckendorf.”
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Series: tumblr prompts - percabeth [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2119701
Comments: 2
Kudos: 84





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey there
> 
> just posting another prompt that i wrote yesterday :)
> 
> hope you like it!
> 
> ~gabi

_**prompt** **:** you're in love with her_ | percabeth (between botl and tlo)

“Percy? Are you even listening to me?”

“Huh?"

He isn't.

In theory, Annabeth is helping him with his bow and arrow technique. He’d always sucked at it, but the children of Apollo really had no patience to teach him anymore. He didn’t blame them. The last time, he’d almost made an incidental sidecut on Will Solace’s hair.

So, Chiron had asked Annabeth to help him. It made sense, since she wasn’t very good in it either. She was only good enough not to die if that was the only weapon she had, and that is what she’s trying to teach him.

Trying, and not actually teaching, because in truth Percy isn’t listening to a single word that comes out of her mouth. It isn’t his fault. The sun is starting to go down on the horizon, and the light makes her hair glow and her eyes brighten in a constant mix of silver, golden and bronze. She’d also forgotten to bring water, and her lips are slightly dry, which makes her lick them, unconsciously, every now and then. Percy wishes “every now and then” meant “rarely”, but, for that, it means “all the time”. And, of course, every time she does it he loses any trail of thought that might be starting to form in his brain.

So yeah, between her hair, her eyes, and her annoyingly distracting habit of licking her lips, there isn’t much space in his head for him to listen to her archery tips.

“Sorry,” he finally says, facing the ground. She has her arm extended, as if offering him the bow she has in hands. Like she’s telling him to take it so she can show him something. It's the first time in almost half an hour that Percy is able to make himself turn his gaze away from her face. Mostly because she’s clearly mad, and he doesn't want to see it.

She huffs. “Really, Percy?”

Uh-oh. This isn’t a good sign. If she was just slightly annoyed, she would call him Seaweed Brain. But she didn’t use the nickname when she was truly and terrifyingly mad. He keeps staring at the ground.

“That's just… You’re just so.. Ugh!”

Yeah, that’s bad. He tries looking at her, but only slightly.

“You come here, and we make all the arrangements to optimize your time here, only because, first of all, you _choose_ to stay here the least you can… Even though you _know_ you’ll be 16 in less then two months, and you _know_ what that means, and you _know_ Kronos is out there gathering an army… And you _know_ he’ll probably kill you-” 

She stops herself for a second, blinking to try to clear the tears that threaten falling from her eyes. He freezes. She’s crying, and even though he’s seen her cry before (not that he knows how to handle it), it breaks his heart, because he knows that it’s his fault, even if he has no idea of why and how.

“And still,” she continues, voice raising. “You don’t even have the DECENCY to pay attention to what I’m saying?”

She clenches her jaw and sustains her look, chin slightly raised and eyes, still shiny with tears, pointed directly at him. He faces the ground besides her, and she waits for him to say something.

“I'm sorry, okay?” He finally looks at her face, and his voice weakens when he sees it so… hurt. “I didn’t mean to ignore you, I just… Zoned out for a bit. I know this is important and I appreciate you taking your time to help me, as well as everyone else. But I’m tired, and there’s too much going on and- And you’re distracting.”

He blushes furiously at the end of his sentence, but her cheeks also turn red as her expression softens slightly. At last, she nods. “Well, you can have archery lessons with someone else, then. Let’s find Beckendorf.”

“Annabeth, that’s not-“

“Percy. Forget it,” she stares at him and her eyes are like storm again, all the magical glittering from before vanished. “ _Please_.” 

She’s hurt, and he knows it, the same way he knows she’ll never admit it. And it hurts him too, specially because he doesn’t understand it completely and doesn’t know how to help. Lately, it seems like all he does makes it worse somehow.

She starts walking towards the stables without saying anything else, and he has no choice but to go after her. They walk in silence the whole way there, and Percy’s sure that facing Medusa wide eyed would’ve hurt less.

When they finally get there, they find Beckendorf brushing one of the _pegasi_ with a slight smile on his face. Percy doesn’t need to ask to know Silena’s been around recently.

“Hey man,” Percy greets his friend, but before he can say anything else, Annabeth interrupts him.

“Hey, Beckendorf,” she says, assertively but still politely. “Everyting alright?”

The son of Hephaestus puts the brush he has on his hands down and walks towards them, smiling.

“Hi, guys! What's up?”

Annabeth answers so quickly that Percy doesn’t even have enough time to process it. “I was wondering, do you think you can give Percy his archery lessons from now on?”

“Annabeth, don’t-“ Percy tries to contest, but she stares at him so fiercely that he almost feels like being a guinea pig again.

Beckendorf frowns. “Have you two been fighting?” They keep quiet, facing the ground. “Okay, I get it. It’s fine, Annabeth, I can… do the archery thing with Percy.”

“Thank you so much.”

At first, Percy thinks she’s just being mean. But the way she looks at their friend, biting her lip and straightening her eyes slightly, is truthfully relieved and thankful. His heart sinks even lower than he though possible.

“We'll talk later,” she says and turns away before Percy can think of something that’s worth saying to her.

So he just stays there and watches her leave for what seems like forever, until Beckendorf cuts though the silence, putting a hand on his shoulder. “ _You're in love with her_ ,” he says, before turning around to finish organizing the stables.

“What? I-Uh… Um?”

_Now that’s a sentence to be proud of, Percy_.

Beckendorf snickers and puts the last things to its places before turning back to Percy and leading him to the doors. Reluctantly, Percy walks besides him, startled.

“Percy, it’s not a secret that you two like each other, not even for yourself, I think.”

Percy considers. He’d never put it in words, but deep down, he knows it's true. He nods slightly and looks down at the grass they’ve just stepped on.

“Okay then. But you’re in love with her,” Beckendorf repeats, and Percy fights the urge to choke. He doesn’t know why people call the feeling _having butterflies in your stomach_ because, really, he mostly feels like throwing up.

He finally manages to speak. “Why do you say that?”

His friend only laughs and faces the horizon. “I have my reasons. But let’s say… The way you looked at her as she left. Like she was punching you instead.”

“I think I would feel better if she punched me. At least I’d know what to expect.”

Beckendorf laughs loudly for a few moments, before they fall in a comfortable silence.

“What did you fight about anyway?”

“She was trying to teach me and I wasn’t paying attention.”

“What- Why?” 

Percy can feel his cheeks turn red and he groans uncomfortably, considering what to say. “I, um… The sunlight on her hair, and her eyes were glittering and her lips-“

The son of Hephaestus stops suddenly in front of him, facing him, open-mouthed, amused for a while.

Percy didn’t think it was possible, but he blushed even harder and puts his hands on his pockets, shrugging slightly.

Finally, Beckendorf smirks and shakes his head, knowingly. “Ohh, man,” he pats Percy’s shoulder slightly. “You’re _so_ in love with her…”

With that, he turns around and starts walking away. 

“Wait!” Percy shouts almost too late. “What do I do with that?” 

His so-called friendly shrugs and throws his arms in the air. “Take her to the fireworks!”

Oh. Yeah, the 4th of July.

Percy can’t help but thinking the fireworks do seem better than archery lessons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on tumblr: @hellpotter


	2. not alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re not gonna lose him,” Silena speaks softly, pulling one of Annabeth’s blond curls behind her ear. “He’s right here.”
> 
> “But he’s not, though. He’s not here enough. He’s not here enough to train and learn. He’s not here enough to make sure he’s not gonna be killed soon. He’s not-,” she sobs. “He’s not here enough to notice that I- That I lov…”
> 
> She’s crying too much to complete her sentence again.
> 
> “To notice that you love him,” Silena whispers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys!
> 
> so, i wrote this for another prompt, but i thought of making it a following scene to this story, or Annabeth's pov from the whole thing.
> 
> thought it would work better if i posted it like another chapter here
> 
> hope you like it!

> _**prompt:**_ _i have nothing left_ | percabeth

Annabeth doesn’t even realize when she starts running. She’s leaving the stables, jaw clenched to stop the tears in her eyes from coming down. One minute, she’s thinking about getting back to the Athena cabin as soon as she can, to deal with her feelings alone and in peace as she explores her Dedalus computer. The other, her legs are working on their own and running through the green lawn from Camp Half Blood, automatically following the instructions of “getting there as soon as possible”. Until she bumps in Silena Beaugard and her ass lands loudly on the ground, as she falls back.

That’s also the moment she notices she’s failed on her task not to cry publicly, since she can feel tears slowly coming down her already wet cheeks.

“Ouch!” Silena turns around, half bothered, half hurt, but her expression rapidly changes when she sees Annabeth on the ground. “Annabeth?”

“Hey,” she takes the hand the Aphrodite’s daughter offers her and gets up. “Sorry, Silena. I didn’t see you there.”

“It’s ok.” They look at each other other for a moment, until Silena reaches out and dries Annabeth’s cheek softly. “Are you okay?”

Annabeth decides to pretend she doesn’t know Silena’s talking about the crying. “Yeah, it was nothing. Again, I’m really sorry for bumping into you.”

She only nods slightly and keeps looking at her empathetically. Annabeth waits for a moment, expecting she would say something, but there’s only silence, so she takes one step to go away. That’s when Silena grabs her wrist, and she stops.

“I have something to show you. Can you come with me?”

Annabeth frowns, slightly annoyed. It is obvious that she was upset, and she just wants to be alone and cry in peace. Out of all things, one she’d never associated with Silena was insensibility. But there she is, asking Annabeth to go and see something when she clearly isn’t up for it.

“Sure,” she says, taking a deep breath to swallow her tears as she follows her friend towards the beach.

They walk in silence until they reach the beach, where Silena keeps walking and looking for something Annabeth doesn’t now what it is. This is the last place she’d wish to be at this moment. A part of Percy is the ocean itself, and being there is almost like him being all around her.

“Here,” Silena stops suddenly at a opening between some rocks that meet each other in different ways and places, forming some kind of cave. She goes in and turns to Annabeth, “Come.”

Annabeth walks behind her and they sit on some rocks, quietly. Somehow, it’s comfortable and cozy. The rocks protect them from the wind and sand, but they’re so close to the sea that every time a stronger wave comes, Annabeth wonders if it won’t reach them.

They sit in silence for a while, staring at the ocean as the sun starts to come down in the horizon. Silena doesn’t say anything, which Annabeth actually finds weird, since she’s a very talkative person. So they just sit there.

Until a stronger blow of salty wind suddenly comes and rustles their hairs and makes Annabeth’s eyes burn, and then the ocean in front of her and the waves and everything is just too much– too Percy for her… And she can’t hold it back anymore. And then she’s sobbing desperately and her face is just so wet she can’t tell how much of is from crying and how much is from the salt air. And Silena holds her and caresses her hair and, thanks Athena, doesn’t try to calm her down or say things will be fine. She’s just _there_ , and Annabeth couldn’t be any more thankful.

After a while, she’s stopped sobbing enough to breathe, and she’s just too angry and desperate and _hurt_ not to say anything.

“I- I can’t lose him,” when she speaks, it becomes harder to breathe and easier to cry. “I can’t- I…”

She finally looks Silena in the eye, and she’s so glad she does. She never would imagine it, but it feels like coming home to a lightened fireplace. Annabeth realizes she’d never thought about it that way – probably because love had always hurt her and left her alone -, but love could also be about comfort. And permanence.

“You’re not gonna lose him,” Silena speaks softly, pulling one of Annabeth’s blond curls behind her ear. “He’s right here.”

“But he’s not, though. He’s not here enough. He’s not here enough to train and learn. He’s not here enough to make sure he’s not gonna be killed soon. He’s not-,” she sobs. “He’s not here enough to notice that I- That I lov…”

She’s crying too much to complete her sentence again.

“To notice that you love him,” Silena whispers.

It’s too cruel. Annabeth’s sure she doesn’t deserve this. She knows demigods have difficult lives, but she’s had enough trouble for a lifetime already. She didn’t deserve to be pulled into this whole mess. She didn’t even want to be friends with him in the first place. And now she has to deal with these stupid feelings and it’s just too complicated and too much for it not to hurt _so bad_ that he doesn’t even care. And that, even if he did, he might die in a few weeks and it wouldn’t matter anyway.

“I hate love,” she finally says.

“You don’t hate love. You hate that you care about it. And that it leaves you,” Silena’s voice is gentle, but fierce. “You don’t know if you’re gonna lose him, Annabeth.”

“I just- If he leaves me, I’ll be alone again. If he dies, I’ll… _I have nothing left._ ”

Annabeth just knows he will leave. Like her father. Like Thalia, in some way. _Like Luke._

“Percy’s strong,” Silena says. “He’ll survive. I- I believe he will.”

Suddenly, her voice is cracking and she stares at the ground. Annabeth can’t figure out why exactly.

“I- I kissed him,” Annabeth’s not sure why she tells Silena that. She just does. Her friend looks up at her, mouth opened. “At Mount St. Helen, last summer. When I thought he was gonna die, I… I kissed him.”

“What’d he say?”

She shrugs. “We never talked about it. I don’t know how he feels.”

“Oh dear Aphrodite, the two of you…”

When Annabeth looks at Silena again, she’s smiling softly.

“Annabeth, I’m pretty sure he loves you too. Maybe he doesn’t understand it yet. Boys are stupid that way.”

That takes out a slight smile from her.

“I know you’re tired, and scared, but… Have a little faith on him. And on us. You’re not alone, and you won’t be.”

Annabeth nods calmly.

“Now c’mon, we have to get ready for dinner,” Silena gets up and offers her one hand. “Also, I’ve been thinking of something we could use in our favor for capture the flag. And maybe we can get ourselves some dates for the 4th of July with that…”

Annabeth has no idea what she’s talking about, but it sure sounds like a plan. And, well, plans are definitely her thing. So she follows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on tumblr: @hellpotter

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr: @hellpotter


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